-- Mahmoud Khalil v. William P. Joyce (1:25-cv-01935), District Court, S.D. New York. Assigned To: Jesse Matthew Furman
29. Mar 12, 2025. ORDER As stated on the record during the conference held earlier today: With the consent of both parties, the Court orders that the limitations on remote access to electronic files otherwise applicable in this case, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 5.2(c), are lifted. Accordingly, the Clerk of Court is directed to lift all viewing restrictions on the docket - i.e., to make all prior filings electronically available to the public - and to update the docket to conform with the caption of this Order. All future filings shall be publicly available unless the Court grants leave to file something under seal or in redacted form. Any application to file a document in such a manner shall be made in accordance with the Court's Individual Rules and Practices for Civil Cases, available at https://nysd.uscourts.gov/hon-jesse-m-furman. The Government shall file its Motion to Transfer or Dismiss for Improper Venue by 11:59 p.m. tonight. Briefing on that motion and Petitioner's Motion to Compel Respondents to Return Petitioner to this District, see ECF No. 11, shall then proceed as follows: The parties shall file their oppositions by March 14, 2025, at 11:59 p.m.; and the parties shall file their replies by March 17, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. Petitioner shall file an Amended Petition no later than March 13, 2025, at 9:00 p.m. After the Amended Petition is filed, the parties shall confer and then file a joint letter, no later than March 14, 2025, at 12:00 p.m., proposing next steps, including an expedited schedule for any additional motion practice. With the consent of the Government, Petitioner shall be granted at least one privileged attorney-client call (of at least one hour) today and at least one such call (also of at least one hour) tomorrow. The Government raised no objection to the temporary relief that the Court granted in its Notice of Conference entered on March 10, 2025. See ECF No. 9, at 1 ("To preserve the Courts jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise." (citing cases)). Accordingly, that order remains in effect. SO ORDERED. (Amended Pleadings due by 3/13/2025., Motions due by 3/12/2025., Replies due by 3/17/2025., Responses due by 3/14/2025) (Signed by Judge Jesse M. Furman on 3/12/2025) (jca) (Entered: 03/12/2025)
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
M.K. [Mahmoud Khalil],
Petitioner,
-v-
WILLIAM P. JOYCE et al.,
Respondents.
CASE NO.: 25-CV-1935 (JMF)
NOTICE OF CONFERENCE
JESSE M. FURMAN, United States District Judge:
It is hereby ORDERED that counsel for all parties appear for a conference with the Court on March 12, 2025 at 11:30 a.m. in Courtroom 1105 of the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse, 40 Centre Street, New York, New York. Counsel must confer in advance of the conference and submit a joint letter, no later than March 11, 2025, at 5:00 p.m., indicating whether the conference is necessary and addressing how the Court should handle the present Petition. If counsel do not believe a conference is required, and that briefing is appropriate, counsel should propose a briefing schedule (expedited or otherwise) in the joint letter.
To preserve the Court’s jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise. See, e.g., Local 1814, Intern. Longshoremen’s Ass’n, AFL-CIO v. New York Shipping Ass’n, Inc., 965 F.2d 1224, 1237 (2d Cir. 1992) (“Once the district court acquires jurisdiction over the subject matter of, and the parties to, the litigation, the All Writs Act [28 U.S.C. § 1651] authorizes a federal court to protect that jurisdiction” (cleaned up)); Garcia-Izquierdo v. Gartner, No. 04-CV-7377 (RCC), 2004 WL 2093515, at *2 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 17, 2004) (observing that, under the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651, a district court “may order that a petitioner’s deportation be stayed . . . when a stay is necessary to preserve the Court’s jurisdiction of the case”); cf. Michael v. I.N.S., 48 F.3d 657, 661-62 (2d Cir. 1995) (holding that the All Writs Act provides a federal court of appeals reviewing a final removal order with a basis to stay removal).
All counsel are required to register promptly as filing users on ECF. All counsel must familiarize themselves with the Court’s Individual Rules, which are available at http://nysd.uscourts.gov/judge/Furman. Absent leave of Court obtained by letter-motion filed before the conference, all pretrial conferences must be attended by the attorney who will serve as principal trial counsel.
If this case has been settled or otherwise terminated, counsel are not required to appear, provided that a stipulation of discontinuance, voluntary dismissal, or other proof of termination is filed on the docket prior to the date of the conference, using the appropriate ECF Filing Event. See SDNY ECF Rules & Instructions §§ 13.17-13.19 & App’x A, available at http://nysd.uscourts.gov/ecf_filing.php.
In accordance with the Court’s Individual Rules and Practices, requests for an extension or adjournment may be made only by letter-motion filed on ECF and must be received at least 48 hours before the deadline or conference. The written submission must state (1) the original date(s); (2) the number of previous requests for adjournment or extension; (3) whether these previous requests were granted or denied; (4) whether the adversary consents and, if not, the reasons given by the adversary for refusing to consent; and (5) the date of the parties’ next scheduled appearance before the Court. Unless counsel are notified that the conference has been adjourned, it will be held as scheduled.
No later than today, March 10, 2025, Petitioner’s counsel is directed (1) to serve Respondents with a copy of the petition and accompanying papers, along with a copy of this Order, by e-mail to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and by overnight mail, and (2) to promptly file proof of such service on the docket. Counsel for Respondents shall promptly enter notices of appearance.
SO ORDERED.
Dated: March 10, 2025
New York, New York
JESSE M. FURMAN
United States District Judge
**********************
“This Is All Retaliatory”: Judge Blocks Mahmoud Khalil’s Deportation as Trump Vows More Arrests
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
March 11, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/11/ ... _palestine
A federal judge has blocked the deportation of recent Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident of the U.S. who was arrested by immigration authorities for helping organize campus solidarity protests with Gaza. He had been receiving daily threats stemming from an online smear campaign launched by pro-Israel activists before his arrest and repeatedly appealed to university administrators for protection. Khalil, who is a Palestinian green card holder, is married to a U.S. citizen. Upon his arrest, he was separated from his pregnant wife and transported to a detention facility in Louisiana, where legal experts say he is more likely to appear before Trump-friendly judges if his case moves forward. “Her husband was abducted before her very eyes [and] disappeared,” says Ramzi Kassem.
Kassem is the founder of the legal clinic CLEAR, which is contesting Khalil’s “baseless” detention and Louisiana transfer in New York court. Khalil’s unprecedented arrest makes good on President Trump’s promise to punish antiwar student activists, bringing together his administration’s attacks on free speech, education and immigrant rights. It is “part and parcel” of “Trump’s racist and fascist agenda,” says immigrant rights activist Murad Awawdeh, who adds that the Columbia University administration’s lack of response to Khalil’s high-profile case has been “incredibly shameful.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: A federal judge has blocked the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, the recent Columbia University graduate who was arrested over the weekend by immigration agents for helping organize campus solidarity protests with Gaza last year. Khalil is a permanent legal resident; he has a green card. His wife is a U.S. citizen who’s eight months pregnant. Khalil was arrested Saturday at his university-owned apartment. He’s now being held in a federal jail for immigrants in Louisiana.
President Trump boasted of Khalil’s arrest, posting on social media, quote, “This is the first arrest of many to come,” unquote.
On Monday, faculty at Columbia University and Barnard College held an emergency press conference, where they were joined by rabbis and immigrant rights advocates. This is Nadia Abu El-Haj, co-director of the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia.
NADIA ABU EL-HAJ: Mahmoud Khalil has been a public face of the student movement at Columbia-Barnard since last spring. During the encampment, he served as the lead negotiator with the Columbia administration. A mature and gentle human being and a politically sophisticated thinker, Mahmoud tried his best to bring a peaceful end to that encampment. In the same spirit, Mahmoud tried to negotiate a resolution between students and the Barnard administration last week during a sit-in at Milstein Hall.
AMY GOODMAN: Yinon Cohen is a professor of Israel and Jewish studies at Columbia University.
YINON COHEN: Rescinding visas, canceling green card and intimidating students and staff have become the tool of choice for stifling free speech and undermining the First Amendment. Columbia University includes Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and atheists, and none of us will be safe unless we’re all safe.
AMY GOODMAN: Over a thousand protesters also gathered at Federal Plaza in New York Monday to demand Mahmoud Khalil’s release. These are some of the voices from the protest.
PROTESTERS: Hands off Mahmoud Khalil! Hands off Mahmoud Khalil! ICE off our campus now! ICE off our campus now!
LAYAN FULEIHAN: My name is Layan Fuleihan. I’m with the People’s Forum. The larger context from even before this weekend, I think, is important. The DOJ has been threatening to deport students who have stood up for the Palestinian people over the past 18 months. They have been calling them pro-Hamas. They have been saying they are antisemitic. They have been trying to demonize the students in the face of the American public. They said to Israeli media that they intend on putting these students in jail, not for 24 hours, but for years.
The Columbia administration has been cracking down on the students without even provocation from the federal government. I mean, they only lasted one day before they brought the NYPD onto campus to suppress the encampment. Columbia has absolutely been part and parcel of this crackdown on the students.
PROTESTERS: No fascist U.S.A.! No ICE!
MURAD AWAWDEH: My name is Murad Awawdeh. I am the president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition. It is incredibly shameful that our communities have to continue to endure under this fascist regime simply to deliver on a publicity stunt of a campaign called mass deportation. The message that they are trying to send, which is a deplorable one, is that no one is protected under free speech in this country anymore.
PROTESTERS: Hands off our students now! Hands off our students now!
ANNOUNCER: I’m going to call up now an experienced leader in the immigrant rights movement, Ravi from the New Sanctuary Coalition.
RAVI RAGBIR: They want to terrorize us. They want to intimidate us. This is my home. I was born in Trinidad, but this is my home. This is Khalil’s home. This is Mahmoud’s home. Right? We have been here. We are making this our community. You all are part of our community. We are going to stand up. We are going to fight. We are not going to allow this agency, this administration to instill fear. So we are not fearful. We are strong. We are unafraid. And we are going to stand up and fight. Free Mahmoud!
PROTESTERS: Release Mahmoud Khalil now! Release Mahmoud Khalil now!
ALEXA AVILÉS: My name is Alexa Avilés. I am a councilmember representing District 38 in South Brooklyn. We are standing here in support of a free Palestine. We are standing demanding the freedom of Khalil. If they cannot hear us, we must be louder. We must organize. They are coming for all of us, and it is us who will protect each other. ICE — ICE and the Trump band of bigots have no place here in New York City.
AMY GOODMAN: On Monday, the news outlet Zeteo reported Mahmoud Khalil had emailed Columbia’s interim President Katrina Armstrong one day before ICE detained him, to ask her to protect him after he was targeted in a doxxing and smear campaign. Khalil wrote, quote, “I haven’t been able to sleep, fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home. I urge you to intervene and provide the necessary protections to prevent further harm,” he said.
Emails Show Mahmoud Khalil Asked Columbia for Protection a Day Before He Was Detained: "I haven’t been able to sleep, fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home. I urge you to intervene and provide the necessary protections to prevent further harm."
by Prem Thakker
zeteo
Mar 10, 2025
https://zeteo.com/p/scoop-emails-show-m ... ection-ice
Mahmoud Khalil speaks to members of the media about the Revolt for Rafah encampment at Columbia University on June 1, 2024. Photo by Jeenah Moon/Reuters
Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian who helped lead negotiations between Columbia University and student protesters, had appealed to the school for protection from harassment and possibly Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents one day before the Trump administration detained him on Saturday, emails obtained by Zeteo show.
The most recent among the leaked messages was an email Khalil, a green card holder, sent to Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong on March 7. “Since yesterday, I have been subjected to a vicious, coordinated, and dehumanizing doxxing campaign led by Columbia affiliates Shai Davidai and David Lederer who, among others, have labeled me a security threat and called for my deportation,” he began.
“Their attacks have incited a wave of hate, including calls for my deportation and death threats. I have outlined the wider context below, yet Columbia has not provided any meaningful support or resources in response to this escalating threat,” he added.
“I haven’t been able to sleep, fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home. I urgently need legal support, and I urge you to intervene and provide the necessary protections to prevent further harm.”
The message was especially notable given several reports of ICE being spotted on campus throughout the week and Columbia’s own guidance published this weekend about “potential visits to campus” by ICE. In the memo, the school said faculty and staff “should not interfere” in “exigent circumstances” where ICE agents seek access to university buildings or people without a warrant.
Columbia University and Lederer did not immediately respond to Zeteo’s requests for comment.
Davidai [Shai Davidai, a Columbia professor banned from campus for harassing pro-Palestinian students], who had been suspended from campus last year over allegations he had harassed university staff, denied collaborating with the Trump administration to get Khalil deported. “Let me be absolutely clear: I have never had a direct line to the administration. Even if I did, I would never use such influence to target an individual. This is not who I am or what I stand for,” Davidai told Zeteo. “Like many, I’ve called out Khalil’s repeated legal violations and demanded accountability. But as I always remind my students, just because one event follows another doesn’t mean it caused it.”
In online posts, Davidai had called Khalil a “terrorist supporter” and suggested he should be deported, tagging Secretary of State Marco Rubio.They're negotiating with them AGAIN.
What did you think will happen when you negotiated with them last time?
By the way - the terrorist supporter holding the megaphone is Mahmoud Khalil - a @Columbia (not @BarnardCollege) student.
Time for arrests and expulsions.Israel War Room
@IsraelWarRoom
Mar 5, 2025
Why is @BarnardCollege’s administration negotiating with the pro-Hamas mob AGAIN?!Dear @SecRubio,
Thank you for your strong statements.
Now we want to see strong action.
Illegally taking over a college in which you are not even enrolled and distributing terrorist propaganda should be a deportable offense, no?
Because that’s what Mahmoud Khalil from @ColumbiaSJP did yesterday at @BarnardCollege[x]
David lederer @Davidlederer6
Mar 6, 2025
Meet Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia student known to have been on a foreign visa last year. He recently helped illegally take over a library building and distribute Hamas propaganda.
https://x.com/canarymission/status/1897 ... 62/video/1
4:39 PM · Mar 6, 2025
Khalil’s March 7 email came after an earlier Jan. 31 email he sent, in which he urged the school “to take immediate action to protect international students at Columbia facing severe and pervasive doxing, discriminatory harassment, and very possibly deportation in retaliation for the lawful exercising of their rights to freedom of speech, expression, and association…”
Khalil cited a threatening post by the pro-Israel organization Betar in January. In the post, the group wrote that he said, “Zionists don’t deserve to live” – a statement Khalil “unequivocally” denied making in his email to university officials. Betar also wrote that ICE “is aware of his home address and whereabouts” and that they “have provided all his information to multiple contacts.”[x]
Mohammad khalil says Zionists don’t deserve to live while he’s on a visa @Columbia. It’s 10 pm and @ICEgov is aware of his home address and whereabouts. We have provided all his information to multiple contacts. He’s on our deport list!
7:52 PM · Jan 29, 2025
“He’s on our deport list!“ Betar added.
Citing the Betar post, Khalil asked Armstrong in his email: “With the stakes being so high, I ask you, as representatives of Columbia University’s administration – how will you protect international students from doxing and from deportation? How will you protect these students’ rights to free speech, expression, and association – rights provided for in the U.S. Constitution and Columbia’s Code of Conduct – and stop the suppression and now potential criminalization of that speech and expression? Students’ futures, their livelihoods, and now, without exaggerating, their lives are at risk.”
Targeted Removal Before Arrest
On Thursday, March 6, Khalil emailed Gerald Lewis, the vice president of Columbia Public Safety, and cc’d Armstrong regarding the deactivation of his university ID. Khalil wrote that during a campus protest, he was approached by public safety staff who informed him his ID had been deactivated due to not being registered for classes this semester.
“I am a recent alumnus, having graduated in December 2024, with my degree set to be conferred in May. By now, I believe you’ve confirmed that I entered the campus like any other Columbia affiliate, swiping my ID and showing it to security,” Khalil wrote.
“I questioned why I was being singled out, as I am aware of other Columbia affiliates who were in similar situations and were not approached, despite being in close proximity to me at the time,” noting that the staff who approached were “well aware that I am a Palestinian national, as we have previously communicated and worked together to ensure safe campus protests.”
“However, when I asked for clarification on how I was identified and why I was the only individual approached, they refused to provide any explanation,” Khalil wrote, questioning why he was the only individual targeted and who issued the instructions for the staff to approach and remove him from campus. Khalil wrote that the lack of a clear justification raised concerns for targeted discrimination.
“For over a year, I have been collaborative with your office and other university offices to ensure all students are safe and that the university operates smoothly so I was really shocked to be treated this way. If I’m unwelcome on Columbia campus, please let me know through the right channels.”
Trump: More Arrests to Come
For more than 24 hours after his detainment, Khalil’s whereabouts were unclear. Per the ICE detainee tracker, he is now held in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana (just months ago, rights groups published a report on facilities in Louisiana entitled "Inside the Black Hole: Systemic Human Rights Abuses Against Immigrants Detained & Disappeared in Louisiana”).
On Monday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the deportation of Khalil until at least Wednesday while he reviewed a petition that challenges the legality of Khalil's detention.
The Trump administration has scrambled to justify Khalil’s detention – but has yet to say explicitly what, if anything, Khalil has been charged with. First, the Department of Homeland Security referred Zeteo to the White House, which did not respond to a request for comment. Later, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed in a statement that ICE detained Khalil “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism.” Without providing evidence, McLaughlin claimed Khalil “led activities aligned to Hamas.”[/i]
A State Department spokesperson initially told Zeteo they cannot comment on individual visa cases, but "in general, the department has broad authority to revoke visas … under the Immigration and Nationality Act,” and that the department “exercise[s] that authority when information comes to light at any time indicating that a visa holder may be inadmissible to the United States or otherwise ineligible for a visa.”
But then, Rubio issued a curt statement that appeared to be trying to reconcile the confusion of how the State Department could even go after someone’s green card – especially after the arresting agents didn’t even know Khalil had one. “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported,” Rubio wrote.
Finally, on Monday, President Donald Trump celebrated the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, calling him, without providing evidence, "a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student.”
"This is the first arrest of many to come,” Trump added.
Prem Thakker is Zeteo’s political reporter. Send tips via email or Signal (premthakker.35).
Meanwhile, Drop Site News reports the ICE agent who detained Khalil was Elvin Hernandez, who was honored by Trump during his State of the Union address in 2019, when Trump was first president.
We’re joined now by two guests. Murad Awawdeh is president of the New York Immigration Coalition, longtime Palestinian American activist. We just saw him in that clip speaking to the crowd yesterday. And Ramzi Kassem is a professor of law at CUNY, the City University of New York, where he founded the legal clinic CLEAR — the acronym stands for Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility. Its mandate is to support Muslims and all other communities “targeted by local, state, or federal government agencies under the guise of national security and counterterrorism,” unquote. On Monday, CLEAR and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a federal habeas petition in the Southern District of New York challenging Mahmoud Khalil’s detention.
Ramzi Kassem, let’s begin with you. If you can explain what has taken place in the last days, from Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest in Columbia housing after directly appealing to Columbia’s president to protect him, right through to the judge yesterday enjoining his deportation and your emergency submission?
RAMZI KASSEM: Thank you, Amy.
I can start with what happened to Mahmoud and his wife. On Saturday night, they were walking home. As you mentioned earlier, Mahmoud is a U.S. permanent resident. His wife is a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant. This is a family. They were expecting their first child next month. They had every reason to look forward to that momentous event.
And they’re coming home on Saturday night around 8 p.m. As they’re about to enter their building is when they’re approached by men in plainclothes who subsequently identify themselves as DHS agents. And what they say is that they’re going to take Mahmoud away because his student visa has been revoked. His wife protested and said that he doesn’t have a student visa. He’s a permanent resident. He has a green card. She goes upstairs to their apartment, gets the green card, shows it to the agent. The agent seems confused, calls his superiors, who apparently ordered him to take Mahmoud anyway.
And so, from her perspective, understandably, her husband was abducted before her very eyes, disappeared to a location in downtown Manhattan. And later that evening, our colleagues and co-counsel Amy Greer and Kyle Barron filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court in Manhattan on his behalf, asking for him to be released. And what the government did, within hours of that, is to move him a thousand miles away from that courthouse down to Louisiana to complicate, interfere with his access to the court, with his access to his legal team, with his access to his wife and to his family and to his support network.
So, what we ended up having to do yesterday, unfortunately, is filing a motion with that same court, asking, basically, for the court to order the government to return Mahmoud to New York so that he can have access to his legal team, so that he can have access to the court, and so that the court can vindicate his constitutional rights. The court has already issued an order yesterday scheduling a hearing for Wednesday and also barring the government from deporting Mahmoud until the court orders otherwise.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But, Ramzi, if he is a permanent resident, and he’s not — hasn’t been accused of any lawful violation, what basis do they have, if any, to actually try to revoke his green card?
RAMZI KASSEM: That is the key question, Juan. Our contention is that this is all retaliatory. The reason he was arrested and detained and targeted for arrest and detention was his constitutionally protected, First Amendment-protected speech and activism in support of Palestinian lives and rights in Gaza and beyond, and the fact that he played, as your segment highlighted, a key mediation role between the university administration and student protesters — which, if anything, is laudable. It’s commendable. It’s what you would want any student to do.
So, none of that is criminal. The government hasn’t even contended, really, seriously, that there is any kind of criminal activity. There’s never been an arrest or a conviction that they could point to. As far as we could tell, the government is invoking — and this is a somewhat novel approach — they’re invoking the foreign policy grounds, where the secretary of state is basically saying that this person, who is a noncitizen, who is a permanent resident, by his mere presence or activities in the United States, poses a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests. Now, none of that has been detailed or specified. And frankly, we don’t believe it will fly in court, because that provision of law may exist, but it does not exist to punish constitutionally protected speech. In other words, it doesn’t trump Mr. Khalil’s First Amendment rights.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And when you hear, for instance, that President Trump on Truth Social said, quote, “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” what does this tell you about where we’re heading?
RAMZI KASSEM: Well, look, I mean, we’ve all, sadly, become accustomed to the sort of inflammatory and, frankly, racist rhetoric that emanates from the Trump administration. This is no different. When it comes to Mahmoud, it’s all entirely baseless. And both Mahmoud and we on his legal team and all of his supporters, including the thousand-plus people who showed up yesterday, intend to fight to bring him back to New York and to vindicate not just his right to free speech, but everyone’s rights to free speech. You know, it can’t be the case that saying something that the government disagrees with becomes cause for a night arrest. No one should accept that. And so, you know, we’ll fight that tooth and nail.
And we don’t believe that this case will set the precedent that the government believes it’s going to set. It’s already backfired. You know, if the intent was to silent speech and to dissuade people from coming out in support of Palestinian human rights, well, we all saw what happened yesterday in Manhattan. Over a thousand people came out, not just in solidarity with Mahmoud, but also in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and beyond. And we don’t believe that people are going to be deterred, nor is the movement that is critical of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and U.S. foreign policy and its support for Israel. Nor is that movement carried mainly by noncitizens. I mean, that’s also a falsehood. Americans are the ones who are driving the movement. And, of course, there are many noncitizen activists among them, but it’s primarily Americans. And so, they’re not going to be able to deport their way out of this movement.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain what’s going to happen in court tomorrow, Ramzi Kassem? And also, sending him to Louisiana, was that just outright punitive?
RAMZI KASSEM: Absolutely, Amy. I mean, our view is that his detention itself was punitive and retaliatory for his First Amendment-protected speech in support of Palestinian lives and rights. And then, subsequently, moving him to Louisiana was retaliatory and punitive, because he filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court contesting the legality and constitutionality of his detention. And so, the government’s response was to try to interfere with the court’s jurisdiction, to try to interfere with his access to counsel and to his family and to his support network by moving him a thousand miles away to Louisiana, where it believes it will have access to, you know, friendlier immigration courts and whatnot.
So, you know, we hope, even though we don’t expect the government to do the reasonable thing and voluntarily bring him back to New York — and if they don’t tell us today that they’re going to do that, then we’ll be in court tomorrow asking the court to order them to do that. And we will litigate the rest of the issues, including the free speech issues, from there.
AMY GOODMAN: And what about the Columbia University —Mahmoud lives in Columbia University housing. This direct appeal to the president of Columbia saying he was living in fear, that he couldn’t sleep. How could Columbia have protected him? Did ICE enter private Columbia housing illegally?
RAMZI KASSEM: There have been numerous reports of ICE in various Columbia housing facilities in the last couple of weeks, some substantiated, some not. That certainly raises a question about Columbia’s role.
Bigger picture, though, Columbia’s silence — well, I should say the Columbia administration’s silence has been noteworthy and shameful. For a university that has so often professed its concern for students, it is remarkably silent now that students are literally being abducted off of the streets surrounding Columbia’s campus. And I stress that this is the administration that I’m pointing a finger towards, because, you know, as your segment showed, other segments, other parts of the Columbia community, whether it’s the faculty or the students, have come out. And that’s commendable. They’ve come out in support of Mahmoud and of his family, and that’s great to see. But the university itself and its role in all of this has been, sadly, shameful to date.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to bring in Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, into the conversation. Murad, your response to what has been happening now with Mahmoud Khalil?
MURAD AWAWDEH: You know, this is, unfortunately, part and parcel to the Trump immigration agenda that we’re seeing play out, from his family separation agenda to his mass deportation plans. Mahmoud Khalil also falls under the category of this Trump administration trying to do everything it can to stymie people’s rights. You know, we’ve seen Tom Homan go out across Fox News, CNN and other networks talking about how individuals who are immigrants don’t have any rights. And this is sort of the rhetoric that they continue to hammer down on.
But fortunately, for everyone who calls his country home, they have constitutional rights, and Mahmoud Khalil is entitled to those rights, as well. And what we’re seeing right now with the Department of Homeland Security, and thankful for the CUNY CLEAR, as well as Center on Constitutional Rights, for stepping in and supporting Mahmoud in this moment, is that he has a right to due process, and that in this moment, he has done nothing wrong. He’s not been charged nor convicted with any crimes.
And it’s incredibly shameful that we continue to see Columbia spiral downward. This university used to be something that was considered the cream of the crop of universities, one of the top Ivy Leagues. There was a report from The Forward yesterday indicating that it may have been some board members of the university who actually called authorities on Mahmoud, which is incredibly disingenuous for an institution that continues to parade itself as an institution that wants to champion its students and build new leaders that we need for this world. What message is this sending to not just to their immigrant students, but all their students and families, that this is something that they would be participating in?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you mentioned the possibility of a connection directly to the university about his arrest. What about — has the university issued any statement, given the fact that they’ve been talking so much in recent months about free speech and protection of free speech?
MURAD AWAWDEH: It does not seem that they have yet. They did send out an email to students shortly after the incident, indicating that they were, you know, aware of situations occurring — which only begs the question: If, you know, Mahmoud is living in university-owned property, and Columbia has policies on the books that says that they will not cooperate or allow ICE onto their properties without a judicial warrant, why was ICE allowed onto that property? This only even more so begs the question: What is Columbia’s role in this moment?
AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you about a New York Times piece that came out right before Mahmoud was taken by ICE, saying, “The Trump administration is finalizing a new ban on travel to the United States for citizens of certain countries that would be broader than the versions President Trump issued in [his] first term. … A draft recommendation circulating inside the executive branch proposes a 'red' list of countries whose citizens Mr. Trump could bar from entering the United States,” referring essentially to a new Muslim ban.
MURAD AWAWDEH: Yeah, and this is part and parcel to, again, Trump’s racist and fascist agenda that he campaigned on and, now that he is in office, is trying to deliver on. We saw this happen in part one of Trump when he was in office, and he’s looking to revive that policy and actually put another ban in place. We believe that it’s imminent, any day now. So, folks who are intending to travel outside of the country should reconsider their travels. And people who are outside of the country who have visas or are LPRs, green card holders, should be considering to travel back as soon as possible.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you for being with us. We’ve been speaking with Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, and with, as well, one of the attorneys for Mahmoud. He is Ramzi Kassem, professor of law at CUNY, the City University of New York, where he founded the legal clinic CLEAR. CLEAR and Center for Constitutional Rights have filed a federal habeas petition in the Southern District of New York challenging Mahmoud Khalil’s detention.
****************************
Mahmoud Khalil Was Detained by ICE Agent Honored by Trump at State of the Union. A federal judge has since blocked his potential deportation—for now
by Jason Paladino
Drop Site News
Mar 10, 2025
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/mahmoud- ... ored-trump
The Trump administration's attempt to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who hasn't been charged with any crime, represents a frightening erosion of First Amendment protections that threatens all Americans. This extraordinary action—detaining and attempting to remove someone for protected political speech—establishes a dangerous precedent where government can bypass due process and criminalize dissent. On Monday evening, a federal judge temporarily blocked the attempted deportation. Sign and share our petition to stand with millions of Americans who believe in protecting constitutional rights. Scroll to the bottom to participate in a letter-writing campaign.
Demand the Release of Mahmoud Khalil
—Ryan Grim
Homeland Security agent Elvin Hernandez during the State of the Union address on February 5, 2019. Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images.
In 2019, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Elvin Hernandez sat in the gallery watching the State of the Union address with First Lady Melania Trump. President Donald Trump celebrated Hernandez as a hero, praising the story of a boy from the Dominican Republic who went on to become an ICE agent and work on human trafficking cases. Hernandez stood and saluted as the president sang his praises.
“We are joined tonight by one of those law enforcement heroes: ICE Special Agent Elvin Hernandez. When Elvin was a boy, he and his family legally immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic. At the age of eight, Elvin told his dad he wanted to become a Special Agent. Today, he leads investigations into the scourge of international sex trafficking.”
The White House45 Archived @WhiteHouse45
February 9, 2019
Legal immigration gave a young Elvin Hernandez the chance to become an American hero.
Today, he fights international sex trafficking as an ICE Special Agent -- part of a team that secured justice for more than 1,500 perpetrators just last year.
That same special agent was present when plainclothes officers raided a Columbia University-owned residential building and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and a lead negotiator for the Gaza Solidarity Encampment in April 2024.
Hernandez’s involvement was made public in a declaration filed in a habeas corpus case filed by Khalil’s attorney, Amy Greer. In response, Judge Jesse E. Furman of the Southern District of New York ordered the government to halt Khalil’s potential deportation until a Wednesday hearing in Manhattan, which his lawyer told Drop Site is “the right decision.” "We are grateful the Court has taken immediate action to protect Mahmoud's rights," she said.
At 8:26 p.m. on Saturday, Khalil called Greer to make her aware of the unfolding situation. ICE’s Hernandez then took the phone and spoke to Greer directly, before eventually hanging up on her.
When Greer asked Hernandez why they were making the arrest and if they had a warrant, he replied that they had an administrative warrant and that the basis of the arrest was the Department of State revoking Khalil’s student visa. Greer then told the agent that Khalil does not have a student visa—he is a legal permanent resident with a green card. Hernandez responded that DHS had “revoked that too.”
No charges have been filed against Mahmoud Khalil. DHS Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin released a statement claiming that Khalil’s activism was “aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
On Monday, the president released a statement directly taking credit for the raid and promising more to come. “Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University,” the post begins. A DHS official initially told Drop Site to contact the White House for information about the arrest.
According to the filing, Greer explained to Hernandez that they can’t simply revoke his green card without due process. Hernandez replied that he would have a chance to go before an immigration judge. When Greer then pushed back and asked what grounds the agents had to start immigration proceedings, Hernandez did not seem thrilled.
“When I began to ask more questions about what grounds they would have to put Mahmoud in immigration proceedings, Agent Hernandez started to grumble at me. I asked him to show me, Mahmoud, or his wife the warrant and he hung up on me,” Greer wrote in the legal filing.
His legal team and wife were unable to locate him for over 24 hours after his detention. According to the ICE database, Khalil was sent from New Jersey to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center. His legal team is attempting to petition the court to return him to New York.
According to LinkedIn, Hernandez works for Homeland Security Investigations, a directorate of the Department of Homeland Security’s ICE. Created in 2010, HSI describes its role as to “shield our nation from global threats to ensure Americans are safe and secure.” It has offices in 235 U.S. cities and 90 offices in over 50 countries and boasts a budget of just under $2.5 billion for Fiscal Year 2025. According to its budget documents, HSI “combats transnational criminal enterprises that seek to exploit America’s legitimate trade, travel, and financial systems.”
A 2022 Department of Justice press release thanks supervisory special agent Elvin Hernandez for his work on the R. Kelly case.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment. An online letter-sending campaign calling for the immediate release of Khalil now has over 1.8 million letters sent.
Meghnad Bose contributed reporting. If you have information about Khalil’s ICE detention, contact Jason Paladino securely on Signal at jpal.01.
